Senior Care Academy
Senior Care Academy is a podcast dedicated to providing valuable information and expert advice on navigating the world of senior care for both senior care providers, and families with aging parents. Hosted by industry professionals, each episode covers a wide range of topics including healthcare options, legal considerations, financial planning, and emotional support for caregivers. If you are a healthcare provider, have aging parents, or are a senior adult, this podcast is for you! Tune in to gain valuable insights and resources to help you make informed decisions and provide the best care for your loved ones.
Senior Care Academy
Empathy and Leadership: Christopher Leiboldt’s Story
Discover the journey of Christopher Leiboldt, the managing owner of Senior Care Authority in Atlanta, as he transitions from academia to corporate leadership and ultimately into senior care. Growing up in Rochester, New York, and having taught at NYU, Christopher's multifaceted career path took him through various roles in sales and marketing before he was inspired to acquire Senior Care Authority at the onset of the pandemic. His personal experience of caring for his father-in-law for six years profoundly deepened his empathy and commitment, leading to a passionate dedication to providing quality senior care.
Learn about the significant mental and emotional benefits of genuine caregiving through the heartwarming story of a Peruvian couple whose caregiver's proactive approach fostered a sense of family and belonging. We emphasize the essential qualities required in aging services—genuine care and a passion for serving older adults. It's a field that demands much but offers the profound reward of providing dignity and self-esteem to seniors, prioritizing their well-being over profit.
Navigating the complexities of senior care during the pandemic posed unique challenges, and Christopher shares strategies such as leveraging technology for virtual tours and consultations. From the profound impact of isolation on seniors, especially those with dementia, to supporting families with early planning and expert consultations, this episode offers invaluable insights. Christopher's vision of building a legacy in senior care underscores the importance of local advisors in ensuring the best care solutions for loved ones, all while balancing the emotional and logistical challenges of caregiving.
Hey everybody, welcome to the Senior Care Academy podcast, a podcast focused on innovation and exciting and creative leaders in the senior care space. Today, we are honored to have Christopher Leiboldt with us, a seasoned expert who has seamlessly blended corporate acumen with personal compassion to guide families through the challenging journey of senior care. As the managing owner of Senior Care Authority in Atlanta, chris brings years of leadership experience from major corporations, helping families find the right care for their loved ones. He's an expert consultant and can help you or your family with any need regarding senior care. Christopher, thank you so much for being on the show today. Really grateful to have you.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Of course It'd be great if we kind of learned a little bit more about you. Tell us about yourself, maybe where you grew up and your start in senior care, and then maybe a little bit about your position now.
Speaker 2:Sure, so I, uh, I grew up in Rochester, new York, and, uh, then traveled around a bit and, uh, I began my. This is my third act, so my first act was at NYU. So I taught at New York University. After living in New York and going to college, I taught at NYU and I did that for about 12 years. I was a specialist in experiential learning, so I worked with educators and I helped them to use learning by doing and experiential learning. I helped them to incorporate that into their curriculum so that it wasn't just all lecturing and speaking, it was actually enabling them to become part of the learning process.
Speaker 2:I got to do a couple of cool things. I wrote for a television show called Blue's Clues. It was a kids television show and that was part of the whole experiential learning journey that I was on. And then after that I had to make a little bit of money. So I went into the corporate world, originally as a trainer, and then I began to enjoy sales and marketing and eventually I became a director of sales and marketing and that took me to various places. So I moved from New York to Memphis, tennessee, then from Memphis Tennessee we went to Cincinnati, ohio, and then the last move was from Cincinnati, ohio, to Atlanta and that's what brought me to Atlanta.
Speaker 2:And then I got to Atlanta and the business that I was a part of was no longer a fit for the corporate entity and my wife had started this very interesting business for older adults. Interesting business for older adults, so the name of her company is Burton Home Group, and what she did was she helped older adults transition into independent living or she helped them to downsize. So she's a real estate agent with Keller Williams. Then she formed an estate sale company because you know it's great to sell the house, but you got to figure out what you're going to do with the stuff that you've been collecting for 30 years. So figured that out. And then she built a move management company to help with that.
Speaker 2:That final move, the piece that we were missing, was consulting. You know, I got all these questions about caring for my aging parents. I've got all these questions about caring for my aging parents. I got all these questions about what's available to me as I age, and that's what led me to Senior Care Authority here in Atlanta and I purchased that on March 1st of 2020, the first day of the pandemic. March 1st of 2020, the first day of the pandemic Yahoo. That was a lot of fun, wow, and that's what got me here and now. Yeah, we've been doing this very, very happily now ever since March 1st of 2020.
Speaker 1:That's incredible. That is an incredible history, personal history and resume incredible. That is an incredible history, personal history and resume. I can true. Well, I can now say that you've successfully contributed to a happy childhood for me, because I loved blues clues. It was one of my favorite shows. So, yeah, that's, that's full circle for you. Oh, and then it is teaching.
Speaker 2:Teaching at NYU is amazing, working with three and five-year-olds through, working mostly with 85 and 90 and up. So it's certainly a full circle, you're right.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:The biggest part of that story that I left out is in those last six years in Atlanta. We became caregivers for my father-in-law, for my wife's father, and we had to navigate all of the challenges that couples in their 50s have to navigate. When mom or dad suddenly take a turn for the worst because of some age-related issue, we had to go fly by the seat of our pants and we learned a lot when we had the opportunity. At the end of this, after we had been caring for him for about six years, we both decided that this is what we wanted to devote our life to helping other people that were uh, that are currently going through that journey um, through it. You know we have a tremendous amount of empathy because we had been through it, so that was also a very important part of the story.
Speaker 1:Of course, yeah, uh, thanks for mentioning that, um, I met with uh, with Ethel Lord. She is the founder and president of the ICA, the International Caregivers Association, and her big focus was dementia and dementia care, and she mentions that her introduction into the industry, or introduction into understanding your resources, understanding what's available to you, started when her husband started began suffering with dementia, and she said that she mentions how much she learns and how that inspired her to really make a change, and I've noticed that that seems to be the case with a lot of um, a lot of our best and brightest care providers is that they understand what it takes and they understand what it's like, um, and I'm sure that's helped you immensely at Senior Care Authority.
Speaker 2:You're exactly right. You know I don't have a statistic so you can't hold me to this, but I'd say four out of five people I meet that are in aging services have either cared for an aging loved one or been part of the process. They experience personally how important it is to serve older adults and that's what kind of drew them into aging services, and it certainly is the case for my wife and I.
Speaker 1:What's it like when you meet with the family? What does that look like for you guys?
Speaker 2:So Senior Care Authority and specifically me, we approach every single inquiry with completely open minds. So when I meet with a family, I never have an outcome preset in my mind. I sit with the family and say, tell me about what's going on and, you know, sometimes it turns into a counseling session because they're going through an incredible amount of emotion. It's a very, very difficult conversation. Nobody wants to have these conversations. So when I sit down and I have these conversations with my family, ultimately I'm trying to figure out four things, and those four things are about this older loved one, which is the reason that we're meeting. And those four things are what is the personality of the older adult? Who are they? What are their loves? What are their desires? What do they like to do? Are they introverted? Are they extroverted? Trying to get a sense of really who they are? Do they have really strong opinions about things that I need to be aware of to do? Are they introverted? Are they extroverted, trying to get a sense of really who they are? Do they have really strong opinions about things that I need to be aware of?
Speaker 2:The next thing that we try to understand is the level of care that they require. So we try to get a sense of what they've been diagnosed with. We try to get a sense of what they're capable of from an activities of daily living perspective. We try to get a good sense of what the caregiving would look like if that's the direction that they decide to go in. And then the other two things are pretty straightforward. We need to understand what the finances look like, you know, because the outcome could be aging in place at home with a caregiver, or the outcome could be moving into some kind of a senior living community. In both instances, we need to understand what the financial picture looks like. And then the last thing that we try to find out is what's the environment that they want to be in. That could be a geographical, you know, I want to be in St Louis, I want to be in Atlanta, I want to be in Charlotte. Or it could be from an environment I want to stay in my home.
Speaker 2:I am not going to move into senior living. My, you know that's it. I. I'm going to. This is what I'm going to do, and we try to facilitate whatever. That whatever is going to be the best fit for that older adult, because it's got to be the needs of the older adult have to be the priority, and the goal of everybody supporting that older adult is to ensure that they land in a situation where they experience self-esteem and dignity on a daily basis, and we need to honor that, and that's what those conversations are all about. Let's find a solution that's going to ensure that this older adult is living with self-esteem and dignity on a daily basis, regardless of whether or not they're living with dementia, they're recovering from a stroke, they've got COPD or they've got congestive heart failure, whatever it might be. We've got to find this solution for them. That's about self-esteem and dignity.
Speaker 1:Right when you were in that position and you were in charge of the care. What impacted you guys the most in order to have such a great grasp of what families need? What you described covers everything. It covers any questions that may come up, any concerns, and you guys are able to successfully address it. I'm sure you guys. What was it like when you received your answers and how did that?
Speaker 2:impact you, my father-in-law.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Specifically, is that what you're asking?
Speaker 1:Yes, with your father-in-law. Yeah, specifically, is that what you're?
Speaker 2:asking yes with your father-in-law. My father-in-law was this incredibly vibrant man. He had been in sales his whole life, the typical traveling salesman, kind of like Willy Loman from Death of a.
Speaker 2:Salesman. You know that was his life. You know he had a briefcase in hand and you know he was all over the country this, you know, back in the 60s and the 70s and the 80s and you couldn't you got. You'd get hoarse by the end of the day because he, he talked so much during the day. He was just you know, he was just a vibrant man and when we came to atl Atlanta and he began to have some health issues, we moved him in for about six months six to seven months, into our own home and he would just sit on the couch and he'd stare out the window. He stopped reading, stopped interacting. You know he couldn't drive anymore and suddenly you could just see his whole sense of self-esteem and dignity, just it just kind of was pouring out of him. So we didn't know what to do at the time. Ultimately, we decided that we were going to move him into an independent living community.
Speaker 2:Uh, he decided okay, so he moved into this independent living community and he was there for a little while and in the second week he uh went out into the, the dining area. There was a great big grand piano and he sat down. He's a beautiful piano player and he sat down, he began to play the piano. He hadn't done that in a long time. Music was something that was really important. Well, he's sitting there playing the piano and, before you know it, there's a few other lady residents that would show up and they're sitting around the couch. Oh, bob, that's just a wonderful song. Can you play another? He's playing? Before you know it, he's coming down there, he's got his sport coat on, he's wearing loafers, he's entertaining, he's got a big crowd. Suddenly he became like the mayor of that independent living community and he went from sitting on the couch with his self-esteem and dignity literally draining out of his body to becoming like the mayor of the place, the primo entertainer, and everybody knew who he was and, of course, his self-esteem, his dignity, just shot through the roof.
Speaker 2:And that is a classic story of what happens when you find the right solution for an older adult. And we experienced it firsthand. And you know, for me that's the key principle in my practice with every single family that I meet with. And sometimes the adult children don't get it. Sometimes the adult children are trying to make decisions for their mom or they're trying to make decisions for their dad, and I have to help them understand that it's mom and dad's decision. If you want this to go smoothly, if you want this transition to work out successfully, you've got to do whatever you can to enable them to make the decision, even believe it or not. Even if they're living with dementia, even if they've got the earlier signs of dementia, they still need to be the decision makers to the best of their ability.
Speaker 1:That's a beautiful story. That made me feel warm inside. That was great.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's such a cool feeling the only time I've, alex, I'm sure that you've witnessed it and you've seen it, if you've been in senior care and I know that you said, I think, in the past that you've been a caregiver.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm sure that you've experienced where you've become a caregiver for somebody that had never experienced caregiving before and they were living in a constant state of fear and confusion and you came into that home and you began to provide that person with care and you began to see them get better from a mental health perspective because they knew that you were there to help them and that's the most beautiful thing about senior care that anybody that works in this industry is is doing something that's so incredibly important for for older adults yeah, that's, that's a wonderful thing, this to think about my favorite clients.
Speaker 1:Um, this old couple I believe they were from per and I can speak Spanish, and it started off as me just going in. I remember my first day very clearly. She said please clean the kitchen, please clean the bathroom and please vacuum. And I did all of those things in less than an hour because for the most part, people who still age at home or who even live in independent livings have clean spaces and there's not much to do but dust or maybe grab something off a shelf. So I finished and I go to her and she's like well, the painting's a little crooked and we need to do the curtain. So you can imagine that during the course of the day we got a lot of things done and I'll never forget she said to me that I like you because you see what's needed and you just get it done.
Speaker 1:And in my mind I thought of the countless people that may have been there before that couldn't help them to such a degree. I don't want to toot my own horn, but it's such a compliment from someone you meet on the first day really warmed me up, and from then it was getting into December and January, and so they would start putting up their Christmas decorations and I remember going to Home Depot for them and buying like a battery for a moving Santa or buying a couple wall hooks to put stuff up, and I really felt like I was a part of their little family and you could just tell that their days were getting better and you could feel that they enjoyed the care that they were receiving, which is, I believe, a standard for almost every senior care provider and it's a standard that I've seen upheld in a lot of places and it's wonderful to see. So, yeah, that feeling is really common or not common to me, but I'm familiar with it and as many people as you choose to serve, I think that feeling will manifest.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's a standard that everybody in aging services, I think, should try to adhere to.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It doesn't always happen.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:And sometimes the work is just too difficult for some people.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:On a day-to-day basis. You're dealing with a lot. People shouldn't feel guilty if they can't provide that level of care to an older adult, but an older adult has earned it and they deserve it. Oh yeah, and people should, if you should wake up every morning excited that you've got the opportunity to go out and serve older adults yes, got the opportunity to go out and serve older adults, and if you don't have that feeling in your heart, then don't feel guilty about it.
Speaker 2:But maybe you know aging services isn't the right area for you, definitely. And it can't be about money either. It can't be about profit, you know what I mean. It needs to be about serving that older adult and doing whatever you can to get them to that place of self-esteem and dignity.
Speaker 1:Right, I mean, speaking of difficulty, you mentioned that. I'm sure that everything spiked during the pandemic. What was that purchase like for you guys? First of all, I mean that must have been a very happy moment, but in the months ahead, big challenges you guys were facing. What strategies did you guys use and how did you weather the storm?
Speaker 2:It was a very, very happy moment when we decided to purchase Senior Care Authority and then I was sitting on the couch. It was March 1st of 2020. And they made the announcement that week that it was that we were, that it was an official pandemic and that you know a lot of the places, that a lot of the assisted livings and independent livings and hospitals and skilled nursing facilities find the right kind of a senior living community. I have to know everything about that senior living community. I have to know who's at the helm. I have to have a relationship with the executive director, the director of nursing, the person that's meeting with the families. I need to understand what the culture is like. I need to understand what the residents are like. I need to understand what the amenities are all of these different things.
Speaker 2:And that year, when we all had to kind of isolate, it was terrifying. So I went from wow, this is going to be a great journey. I can't wait to being like what have I done? This is going to be an impossible thing for me to achieve. My client just kept showing up, and I'm also a Christian. Am I allowed to talk about my faith?
Speaker 1:here?
Speaker 2:Definitely yeah, it's a part of what influences you I feel like, yeah, I feel like you know God had a hand in that and you know, as a Christian, I feel like you know I'm always trying to figure out what my, what God's purpose is for me. And as much as I wanted to say, I'm going to go back into the corporate world because that's safer. God just kept nudging me along, saying here, take care of this family and experience what that's like. Oh, now, take care of here, take care of this family and see what that's like. And it kept happening, and it kept happening, and it kept happening and it ultimately here I am, four and a half years later, you know, being able to navigate one of the most unprecedented times in our history and I'm glad I stuck with it.
Speaker 1:Definitely the pandemic it wasn't scary. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And incredibly nerve wracking.
Speaker 1:You took the words right out of my mouth. It really shook everyone. I remember I felt more connected to my family at that time, more connected to my family at that time, and I felt that the people that mattered most in your life were kind of your main focus, which was really cool feeling, cool experience. You know, I love my friends and I love my coworkers and I enjoy being around them and I'm sure during that time we all felt that if we couldn't communicate then it'd be okay, but we should probably let everybody who's important in our life know how we're doing, what's going on, how they're doing. It really shook everything up. When I can, I can't imagine what it was like not being able to visit a family member, especially knowing that they may have autoimmune disability or diseases or they might be immune, compromised to where there's zero contact allowed. What was that like for you guys and how long did it take to let people in and see their families?
Speaker 2:Let me make sure I understand the question correctly.
Speaker 2:So you know, as you know, I described. You know I'm a senior care advisor and it's my role to meet with families and then, if they decide that they're going to move into a senior living community, I I meet them on site and they serve as their advocate in the building and I I walk through the the tour with them and I point out why this place would be a good fit for their older adult. Or I walk through the building with the older adult and help them to see the different things. So, on that side of it, when you weren't allowed to go into a building and the family still had to make the choice of moving their loved one in there, we had to use all kinds of technology in order to give the family the experience of that senior living community as though they were there. And it was a partnership between you know people that provide concierge level placement assistance, like I do and the senior living communities themselves. So, uh, here's something that's pretty funny On March 1st of 2020, I didn't know what Zoom was Neither did I.
Speaker 1:It was a foreign concept to me.
Speaker 2:Isn't that amazing, Isn't that amazing? So, you know, we had to learn all of these technologies and the senior living communities began to make a lot of videos. They did FaceTime tours. They began to create all of this interesting technology that enabled the families to get a sense of what the place was like. They would do Zoom calls with the executive directors, Zoom calls with the family advisors. I learned how to use Zoom. Most of my elder care consultations that's the first part of my process that was all done over video conferencing and ultimately, you know, we were able to bring the experience of the senior living community to those families.
Speaker 1:I think the senior living community to those families.
Speaker 2:I think that's where the impact was the most profound. You know, if they decided that they were going to age in place at home, then of course the home care companies had to make adaptations. The home health companies had to make adaptations, use social distancing and all of the personal protective equipment that they needed to protect both the older adult and themselves.
Speaker 2:But it was extremely difficult with senior living communities and it was very very sad at that time, because one of the things that impacts people living with dementia the most is isolation. Social recreational activity is key to the happiness and joy of somebody that's living with dementia, and there was so much isolation and so much failure to thrive, and that was one of the true tragedies and travesties of the pandemic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's definitely affected more communities. I think in my question I should have recognized the scope of the specifics of your role, but it's cool that you were able to know the techniques that were used in senior living communities. I've only heard, unfortunately, some of the really sad stories of isolation and it's tough to hear, honestly, and I think everybody knows someone who maybe really struggled during isolation and I think it's fascinating that the reports kind of trickled to you and I'm sure when you advised people during that time when you were receiving family after family to serve, like that was something that you always kept in mind. Since the pandemic, I think more and more older adults are starting to be aware of the state of their parents and the senior living space is only going to grow because our life expectancy is increasing and we're going to have more and more need for services and whatnot, and so I guess I'm wondering where do you see senior living? Where do you see senior care providers, anyone in the industry? Where do you see their state in about five to 10 years?
Speaker 2:I want to challenge an assumption.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:That I think you began that question with, and that is that. I can't remember the exact wording that you used, but it was something to the effect of the fact that families are becoming more aware of what to do since the pandemic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I don't think that's the case.
Speaker 2:I think that interesting uh, adult children are kind of going through life and if mom and dad are okay, you know they're they, they're just going through life. And then there's an event and it takes everybody by surprise and that's usually when I get the case and what's happening is you've got an adult child who is rightfully obsessed about making sure that mom and dad are okay. Mom and dad. Maybe they're still trying to live at home all by themselves and there's been hospital trips and doctor's visits and there's been, you know, grocery store and cooking and you know, helping out in whatever way you can while you're in your 50s, early 60s, and you're still trying to work, you're still trying to climb the corporate ladder. You're married and you're still trying to be a good husband. You're still trying to be a good wife, but you don't have time for each other anymore and you've got kids that are in high school or maybe they've just started college. They're used to having you around and suddenly any bit of free time that you have, you're over at mom's house or dad's house.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And life has just become incredibly difficult. That's when I, that's usually when I become involved, and you know my advice. My advice to people is not to don't don't wait until it becomes an emergency, don't wait until it becomes a crisis. There are people like me in every state Senior Care Authority. My company is a national company and it's highly likely that there is a Senior Care Authority advisor that's in your neck of the woods. It doesn't cost you anything to have a consultation. It doesn't cost you anything to have a consultation and the advisor is going to sit down with you one-on-one and say this is what the roadmap looks like. These are the things that you need to consider. Yeah, Because I don't think. I think it takes everybody by surprise.
Speaker 1:Nobody's really prepared for it and you know, regardless of whether or not there was a pandemic, so just you know that's there and everyone's aware, but maybe before your life is really busy, you're not really thinking about that. I didn't consider that until you painted that picture and you mentioned that the consultations are free and you go in and you get the roadmap. What qualities do you look for, I guess, or work on for yourself, in order to ease their mind, to give them a lot of peace. Is there a trait that you need, or maybe something that you think about?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I always say you know, I get called frequently when people are considering becoming and providing concierge-level placement assistance, when they're thinking about starting a business in elder care, consulting or senior care, and I let them know that they need to have four things in place. I let them know that they need to have four things in place and I've added a fifth, but really it's four main things. The first thing is you need to have empathy and compassion. That's the core quality, the core trait that you need to have, and it goes back to what we were talking about before. Usually it's because there's been something in that person's life personally where they've had to care for an aging parent or they've had to care for a loved one. So, empathy and compassion. The second thing is you need to have some skills in the areas of teaching, educating and facilitation. You're essentially educating families about all of the options that are available to them and you know that takes sometimes a special person to be able to clearly help them understand all of the options that are available to them and you're facilitating very difficult discussions. You know, sometimes you know mom doesn't want to consider moving out of her home. Sometimes you know the sister. You know the sister and the brother totally disagree on what's best for mom, and you're in the middle of it, so you need to be a good facilitator. The third thing is is that it's a business, and you know you may have the biggest heart in the world, you may be born into this and you may be a great teacher, a great facilitator, but you know you're terrified to get up in front of a group of people and talk about your business or networking is something that you know really, really scares you, or doing something like this is something that terrifies you, and you know it is a business. So you need to be comfortable with referral marketing, not sales, that's different. Yeah, referral marketing. You need to be comfortable meeting with people and building relationships so that they can develop confidence in you and they'll be eager to share referrals with you.
Speaker 2:The fifth thing, fourth thing is that you do need to have some. If you're thinking about building a business, you need to have some capital to be able to do it. And then the fifth thing that I kind of added on there and it's probably because I'm a Christian, but you got to have faith because there's times when the phone's not going to ring. You know there's going to become times when it's a little bit quieter and you need to have faith that you're in the right place, especially if you wake up every morning with a big smile on your face and you can't wait to get to work.
Speaker 2:And you just need to have confidence that the phone's going to ring and that everything's going to be okay and that, ultimately, if you're doing something that you love and you're serving older adults, you got to have that faith that it'll work out. And those are the five things, five qualities or traits that I think are critically important for people that are considering building any kind of a business in aging services, especially a home care company, a hospice company, a placement assistance company, a senior care company, aging life care business, all of those things.
Speaker 1:Wow, those are great points to have, great points to focus on. I think, based on your work and your career and the conversation that we've had today, I feel that you've exemplified those points, amplified those points. You've shown in a way like what it takes, and I love how you describe the capacity that individuals are able to have or their potential to really serve others. It's a great view. You kind of like the 30,000 foot view down on what it really takes from individual to individual. That's really really cool, I kind of. I have one last question for you. I like to leave off on a positive note, I guess not denoting or I guess not alluding to the fact that this was negative at all, to the fact that this was negative at all, but I'd love to know what type of legacy that you hope to leave behind from Senior Care Authority and what does the future look like for you.
Speaker 2:Well, this is an infant industry the vast majority of people. One of the first things that I hear them say is I didn't know you existed. I never knew somebody like you existed. So the legacy is to create this awareness that there are senior care advisors in your neighborhood, most likely and that you know people don't have to navigate this incredibly difficult journey on their own. There's professionals that can help them do that crises they're not relying on. You know surfing the internet or calling a 1-800 number, or you know doing something. That's not where they're making contact with a real person. And you know, in the next five to 10 years, that's what we're hoping. You know the trade association for real estate began in the early 1900s. The term realtor didn't even exist. I mean, look where we are now.
Speaker 2:The percentage of people that use a realtor to either buy or sell a home. You know there's only about 15 to 20 percent of people that would use a placement agent or a senior care advisor to help them find a senior living community. I compare myself to like I'm like a fast pass at Disney World. So when I work with a family we'll move them right to the front of the line and we make sure that they get on the right ride. The alternative right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Waiting in line. Have you ever been to Disney World? Have you ever been waiting in line at an amusement park? How painful it is. You sit there for an hour. That's the journey that most families go on. So the legacy is wow, let me become aware of my local senior care advisor so that I can focus on my life and we can get the best possible solution for our loved one on my life, and we can get the best possible solution for our loved one, and utilizing a professional to help them do that is going to make the journey a heck of a lot easier wow, thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 1:That's a a legacy that I'd love to see, and I think that you're building and crafting it and I think it'll really come to fruition. Everybody this has been the Senior Care Academy podcast with Christopher Leiboldt visionary, powerful leader and empathetic counselor. Christopher, thank you so much for being on the show today.
Speaker 2:Thanks, alex, it was a lot of fun.